One Clean Egg

This is what I do to help the dry process.

Kit...how do you know at what point they are mature enough to remove from the vine and scrape them? I'm so afraid that if I pull them too soon they will rot, but would like to try the scraping early though. Jo

Wind, have you scraped gourds other than the egg variety, too? What does the underneath feel like? Is it a tedious process with regard to not wanting to mar the surface underneath the outer layer?

Nice looking gourd :)

Jo when your vines are brown and look dead it is safe to pick your gourds.

Morph yes I do scrap all my gourds and you have to turn your gouds every three or four day or at least I do to keep them from rottening. Unless you have them drying on a screen or a place where air can circulate all around them. I use a towel to keep mine wiped clean of any fungus that starts to form on them.

Thanks Kit...2 of my vines seem to be dying...but I hope not....I have so many little swans that need to mature yet. Jo

Your welcome. I can't believe some of these stupid vines I've got this year. I planted some seeds that were sent to me and they didn't do much all summer but vine, now that it's starting to get chilly they are producing little gourds everywhere. It's enough to make me want to spit bullets.

Kit, that is exactly what happened to me! I thought it was becasue I was gone and they just got watered...and no food, but I guess it was universal. Jo

I'll say, and I hate to throw them away but I have no choice. Well I did get a late start because of the flooding but next year I am not going to be here so I will be able to get a jump on it.

With the exception of the three I've harvested, I have run into the same issue ~ nerve racking! I have no idea if they will mature since it's been down to the forties on several nights over the past few days. I'm afraid the colder nights might "signal" the plants to stop their growth and then I'll be back to the drawing board for next year. But, our frost date isn't until October so I keep thinking they might have time to mature if they don't mind the cool nights. BTW, no signs of browning on the vines yet.

Thanks for the scaping & drying info, Wind. I'm not sure what I'll use yet to try to scrape just one of the three I've harvested. It's a scary thought for me!

Morph use a butter knife,you'll find that it won't hurt your gourd just your wrist and finger's they get tired. It is not as fast and as it sounds, it took me forever to scrape my large gourds, I had to take a break but all in all it's worth it. I wish that they would keep their natural growing colors, wouldn't that be nice.

Oh, this will fun then. My wrists are already sore from all sorts of projects including programming! If your egg gourds would stay that ivory color, that would be just beautiful! It would be so natural looking.

It sure would but I think that it will turn brown. It doesn't matter because I am going to have fun decorating it.

I am pretty new with grouds. I want to try scapeing them. But What do I do after I scape them? Thanks
Karen

Brim you just put them in a cool dry place and turn them every other day. I wipe mine with a cloth after scraping and even when I see mold growing on them and then turn em.

Thanks for the usefull info everyone.
Brim

Your welcome and good luck

If my vine does not turn brown when do I know I should pick the gourds? Maybe it will turn brown but this is zone 10 and my first time with gourds. I have a lot of medium sized ones still growing.

Bug_Girl,

I know you should wait to remove the gourds, but the way mine grew this year was strange. They would appear from no where, it seemed. Then, they would just take off and grow so fast! After they seemed to have stopped their growth spurt, I waited another week or two after they seemed to have "matured" to their ulimate size. Then, I did remove them. So far, the ones I removed like this are doing okay. They are drying in my cooler garage.

Don't forget that if you do remove them, leave a good two or three inches of stem still attached. You can remove it later if you want, but it's highly recommended to leave it there especially if you'd ever put it into a gourd contest. But, I also think it helps the gourd to dry AND it's nice to use to hang your gourd if it's going to be a bird house or anything else you'd want to hang somewhere.

Just my two cents...

BugG your vines will turn brown give them time. Your little gourds are not mature enough to pick...pick at your own risk. Just leave them there and once they have reach there peak of growth they will start to turn brown. your climate is great for growing huge gourds. Some people in your area just leave them in the fields until they do turn brown.
When I was in San Diego I visit a lot of different gardens and let me say I fell in love with the lemon plants.
I had to laugh at my brother because he thought it was cold at 50 degrees, I was in heaven.

Yes, in your zone, hopefully you'll have the time for your vines to turn brown. Since it got cold in our zone this past week, I couldn't wait any longer for brown vines. I removed all gourds & luffas. They seemed to have reached their matured state (weeks ago) and I was just waiting for the vines to start browning. But, with the cold weather, I didn't want to risk anything AND I am hoping for viable seeds once the gourds have dried. Good luck & I'm envious of your zone!

Every zone has its draw backs, the summer fog season is like a mini winter. My gourds did not grow fast enough because of the lack of sunshine. Sometimes the sun does not appear for days. Weeks go by with little of no sun. So, things don't bloom as much as in places with a real summer.


What would happen if you left the gourds on the vines? Would they have frozen and been ruined? I am not sure just how big they can get, so when they appear to stop growing, then they are finished?

I want to try an egg gourd next year. They look so cute.

If you follow the "by the book" directions, you are supposed to leave the gourds on the vine until the vine dries or dies. I had read that you can actually leave them there over the course of the winter. However, that may depend on the zone in which you are located.

But, I had also read that a freeze may make the seeds not able to germinate. I don't know how true this is, but I know that I want to have viable seeds! And, since my luffas didn't seem to like the cold weather, I didn't want to risk ruining the few gourds that survived mold & mildew!

I put a lot of time into tending the gourds, so I'm being very cautious. I hope not to lose any, but only time will tell.

BugG when is your first frost and how long does it last? I thought your frost would be the same as San Diego. Have you been giving them enough water and feeding them? Gourds do love water and need it to produce big healthy gourds. It might seem like they have stopped growing and I'll bet it's because your watching them to closely. Now don't get me wrong I don't mean thy stop growing because your watching them but because when you watch them that closely it seems that they are not doing anything, take if from someone that did the same thing. Just forget about them and they will be fine dependind on when you planted them and how much water and food they have received.Oh by the way the sun is out even on cloudy days, so if you haven't planted them in complete shade they should be alright.

Morph you have been doing your homework. Sometimes you can remove gourds before the vine starts to turn brown but only if the gourds are mature enough. I had to remove my apple gourds because of the children around here was trying to cut into them so thank God they were large enough to do so and are drying just fine.
Funny you should mention Egg Gourds over half of them are dry already and ready for decorating. My apple gourds are almost dry as well, I give them about two to three weeks more and I will be able to decorate them....to excited.

Dear Windsuffer, We do not have any frost usually it does not even get to 32 the point of freeze, last winter we got down to 37. Since I was thinking they just won't turn brown because there is no frost? I don't think san diego has a frost either.

I am asking for a friend who wants to make a project with the gourds. Do all of them have to be scraped? I have hand pain, so I am sure I can't do something like that myself, but she wants to try.

I have a big round one that may have stopped growing but I still wonder if it can get bigger? Then I also have many medium and baby banana gourds.

Since I had to pull my gourds early (see another thread on here), I decided to scrape a couple of them to see what happened...they did dry quicker...but shrunk in ..like in ridges...ruined both of them...but taught me a lesson. They were bottle gourds. Jo

Wind, are the egg gourds considered a soft shell variety? Someone at the gourd show mentioned a difference between hard and soft shell varieties. That was new to me and caught my interest. I haven't read much about the differences between the two, yet.

I'm glad to know about their need for water, too.

Sorry about your ruined gourds, Jo :( You sure have had more to contend with than I!

I, for one, have learned A LOT about gourds this year!

BugG I can assure that San Diego has that early morning frost that you see on plants until it warms up. Although it is not a heavy frost still a frost non the less. Even Az gets that cold in early morning. I have experienced both areas.
No you don't have to scrape your gouds it just helps mature gourds to dry faster. It's up to you as to how you treat your gourds.

RR all gourds shrink as they dry but if yours rippled it's because they were not mature. As I said above it's up to you how you treat your gourds. You will also find that even some of the gourds that you have stored will not always make it, some will ripple and rot others will not. It just depends on the maturity of the gourd and how you dry it.



Morph this is my firs time growing egg gourds but mine are dry and seem to have a hard shell.

Here are all of my apple gourds and as you can see they have been scraped. I leaned to do this from a book on gourds that I found at the library. Once I scrape them I dry them with a clean towel and make sure they have plenty of air circulation. I also turn them every other day because mine are not hung in a netting but sit on a solid surface. Not every gourd you grow and try to dry is going to make it, some do and some don't. The ones in the back that are a light tan are almost dry, I will give them two more weeks before they are.
Oh by the way some of my egg gourd rippled because they were not mature enough but that was only two of them. The rest are doing fine and are ready for decorating.
The one in the back far left and the one in front on the right are bushel gourds.

IF YOU WILL NOTICE THAT I DON'T HAVE ALL THE BLACK MOLD SPOTS ON THEM,I WIPE THEM EVEYR TIME I TURN THEM.

This message was edited Friday, Oct 18th 1:37 PM

Wow, you did a great job of scraping these, Kit! I lost one after I tried to scrape it and my hand just applied too much pressure. The surface was uneven very UNLIKE yours which are so smooth!

Kit....those are beautiful....would welcome some seeds....JUST MAYBE I'll go through this agony again next year....LOL

I can salvage one of the ones that rippled...it will look like a fluffy goose at the bottom....LOL

Thanks for all your help..you're a doll..in more ways than one. Jo

Morph they can take a fair amount of pressure but not the he man kind lol. You don't have to push in hard, just scrape the skin.

Jo I am so sorry that you didn't get to save many of your gourds. I hope that next year is a better one and don't give up on you rippled ones just decorate as you normally would they will be unique. I am keeping my two rippled egg gourds and will decorate them as well, I will post a picture when I am finished.

Oh the gourd in the front to the right is a bushel gourd, sorry it is not a apple.

I was thinking frost was 32 degrees, but I do see something like frost on the lawn in the morning during the winter. If I walk on the lawn in that condition the grass will die. I have to water it first to melt it, but it not like ice.

I feed the medium banana shaped gourd bushes again, but we seem to be having another mini winter, in Oct. which normally is the best month for sun. The first half of Oct. was great, but now it is cloudy all day. So, I may not be able to get much with the gourds, this late in the season.

This may seem like a silly question, but I think one would need to remove the inner fiber and seeds while drying or else the gourd may collaspe in on itself, such as with an old pumpkin. I am planning to check the library for a book on the subject.

If one did not get enough gourds this season, I noticed local farmers market's have very low prices on gourds as compared to gorcery stores. It is just more fun to grown them yourself.

BugG...look in your library for "Gourds in your Garden" by: Ginger Summit...she has 2 good ones...one on growing gourds..and one on decorating them. Jo

BugG that thin layer that you have on your grass is a thin layer of ice. The next time you see it touch it and see if it doesn't melt, 32 degrees is freezing and is the freezing point of water.
No you don't have to take anything out of a goud until it's dry. Here is a link that will tell you how to dry a gourd even scraping them is located at the bottom of the page.
I hope this helps you.http://www.gourd-art.com/drying_gourds.html

Looks like I only need to turn them, for them to become shakers.

Those are beautiful apple gourds! I can not grow them here in Michigan. Dose anyone know where I can get some very small apples like that?
Brim

Brim you should check the internet there still might be some places selling them.

Thanks Windsurffer!

Brim, also, try your local farmer's market or country road vegetable stands. Around here I've found they sell interesting varieties. Sometimes priced high and sometimes more reasonably depending on closely located to town they are :) Drive further away from town and the prices drop decently!

Your welcome.
I have started a new link and you can see some of my drawings there. http://davesgarden.com/t/364905/